Prunier: elegantly luxurious

Béatrice Delamotte

If the Parisian restaurant is an institution dedicated to seafood since 1925, Prunier is also one of the largest production houses of caviar 100% made in France. A pronounced taste for an elegant luxury.

With the month of December coming up, the Manufacture Prunier, in Montpont-Ménestrol in the Dordogne, is fully busy. About 120 kilos of caviar that will be marketed in the coming weeks. With a precise gesture, the pockets of the precious eggs are removed before being delicately placed in a “cassin” where they will be weighed and will receive a lot number. Laurent Sabeau, the manager of breeding, then sorts the pockets according to their color – “the clearer they are, the better they are” – and the quality of the eggs. Then begins the preparation of caviar properly so called. With a precise and delicate gesture, the eggs are extracted from the pockets before being again weighed to determine the exact amount of salt needed. “To make a good caviar, salt is essential. It must be very pure and of a very fine granulometry, “explains Valerie Sabeau who has the task of mixing eggs and salt. Her hand draws a ballet: it caresses the eggs, incorporates the salt with gestures supple and controlled. In a few moments, on contact with salt, the eggs seem to swell, to associate with each other. On the large table, boxes of 75 g to one kilo stack, waiting to be delicately filled and then pressed. This is one of the specificities of the Prunier house: a packaging in “original boxes”, not set before maturation, from a few days to a few weeks. While waiting to reach the tables of the Parisian restaurant Prunier, but also those of other famous tables and to rejoice the savvy amateurs.

A few steps from the Arc de Triomphe, the Prunier restaurant is one of the must-see addresses for enthusiasts of iodized products of excellence. Opened in 1925, it proposes in a spectacular Art Deco decoration “Everything that comes from the sea” as the motto of the house proclaims. True to the spirit of Emile and Paul Prunier, the founders, chef Eric Cloisel offers delicate cuisine. During the seasons and natural fishing periods, he elaborates delicacies including the famous “Dior egg” which highlights the caviar produced in the Dordogne. A nod to Pierre Berger who bought the famous brand in 2000 as well as the sturgeon breeding and who perpetuates Yves Saint Laurent’s habit of celebrating and sharing love by creating his own greeting cards. Since 2007, Prunier has reissued his creations through a vintage caviar box: Love. More recently, the Café Prunier opened its doors at the Place de la Madeleine in 2006. Both a boutique and a modern and convivial tasting place, the restaurant owes a part of its charm to the decoration by Jacques Grange who brought to the place a soothing and chic atmosphere. For an elegant break in the heart of the tumult of the place.

Around the caviar, its flagship product, Maison Prunier has created a whole world of gourmet products to open excellence to other horizons, in association with Caviar House. This is how smoked salmon Balik is now part of the menu of different addresses, restaurants and shops. This luxury salmon, caught in the Norwegian fjords, is then transported to the heights of Ebersol, in German-speaking Switzerland, to be smoked according to the exclusive recipe of Hans Kübel, the founder of Balik. Produced in very limited quantities, this salmon is a particularly refined dish for connoisseurs. And as caviar and salmon blend perfectly with a very pure vodka, Prunier entrusted the Distillerie de Paris to design an exclusive vodka. Produced in small quantities in the capital, it is made from rice fermented according to a Japanese method and offers delicate aromas with floral and slightly powdered notes.